This fill-in gig was Dr Feelgood's big break

On July 13, 1973, the pub rock legends headlined their first show in London

Joe Strummer of The Clash, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols, Paul Weller of The Jam, J.J. Burnel and Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers — these are among the British musicians inspired and influenced by Dr Feelgood, whose intense and somewhat menacing live act made the Canvey Island R&B band the first and only superstars of pub rock in the mid-1970s.

Two years after forming in 1971, Dr Feelgood was in no position to influence anyone outside of bar patrons in their stomping grounds along England’s east coast — nearly 40 miles from the the heart of the London pub rock scene. Further, no one in the four-piece band was making a living playing the Esplanade Club in Southend-on-Sea or the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury. They needed a way to break out of the dead-end local scene and become a proper professional group.

The Feelgoods caught a break when a prominent pub rock booker had to fill a slot on short notice at the Tally Ho, the North London pub that in May 1971 had only been trying to boost business on Monday nights and ended up kicking off the pub rock era.

From Will Birch’s No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution:

For several months, Dai Davies had been hearing about an R&B outfit from Canvey Island called Dr Feelgood, who were keen to try their hand on the Pub Rock circuit. By the summer of 1973 … Davies was now in a position to give Dr Feelgood their first break, as a replacement act for Ducks Deluxe at the Tally Ho.

Ducks Deluxe was a hard-rocking band that was one of the top acts in the early pub rock era. Though the Ducks didn’t know it at the time, they — along with every other pub rock outfit — were about to be left in the dust by this fill-in band from Essex County.

Nor would patrons of the Tally Ho on Friday, July 13, 1973, have suspected that the band they saw that night would have a chart-topping live album (Stupidity) just three years later. Birch writes:

“[A]round 40 people — mostly Ducks Deluxe fans — were present to witness Dr Feelgood’s Tally Ho debut. …they received only a lukewarm response.

Despite the tepid audience reaction, Davies saw enough in Dr Feelgood’s act to book a gig for them at the Lord Nelson on Holloway Road, which regularly featured pub rock mainstays such as the Ducks and Kilburn and the High Roads.

Over the next year the Feelgoods would become main attractions at the Lord Nelson, the Kensington, the Hope & Anchor, and other stops on the live music circuit, the sheer force and raw aggressiveness of their stage act setting a bar that no other pub rock band could touch.

That short-notice booking at the Lord Nelson on July 13, 1973, was a turning point for Dr Feelgood. But cover bands — no matter how good — face a low career ceiling, then and now. The Feelgoods needed some original material to land a recording contract and more lucrative venues. Within weeks, guitarist Wilko Johnson would begin to deliver with a song he labored over — She Does It Right. Check out a live version below: